Blast from the past - remind us of a thing
Discussion
)Super Sonic said:
Getting the deposit back on empty fizzy drink bottles.
This one may only be a small village thing but the bakers van coming round w fresh bread and cakes. Also greengrocer van w tins, fresh vegetables etc.
ETA corporal punishment! Getting hit w a plimsoll for not handing in homework.
Plimsolls!
Getting your fizzy drinks delivered to the door, in glass bottles, in a crate. By a man in an orange flatbed Transit who was known only as 'Jack The Pop' to us kids.This one may only be a small village thing but the bakers van coming round w fresh bread and cakes. Also greengrocer van w tins, fresh vegetables etc.
ETA corporal punishment! Getting hit w a plimsoll for not handing in homework.
Plimsolls!
Being ten years old, and looking it, but getting served with cider in brown glass "flagon" bottles at the local "offie". But it was legit because Derek behind the counter knew our dad had sent us to fetch the booze (because we told him so). Then getting sent down to "the bushes by the gate in the park" by my dad. To collect empty cider bottles that "the big kids" had left there in their drinking den, put them into a crate, and haul them to the "offie" to get 10p back on each one.
Getting chased by the local policeman for getting up to mischief in the offices and on the gantry cranes of the closed British Steel distribution depot. Only he was an inordinately round policeman and he didn't bother to chase us. Instead, he would recognise us and shout out "run all you want, yellowjack165, I'll be in the Brighton Road Club drinking with your dad tonight and I'll tell him all about this..." Actual bobbies, with actual beats, who lived in the same community they served. What a blast from the past!
Oh, and the greengrocers van thing? Between leaving school and taking up my place in the army, my dad had a word with "a mate of his" and I got a job for about four months on such a van. Lounging on sacks of potatoes between stops, sitting in the box above the cab watching traffic behind us, eating so much fruit in the first week that I could barely bring myself to look at another strawberry, and being teased by groups of female customers who would have quite "fruity" conversations at the back of the van, and flirting with me. I think (think? I know) it was deliberate to try to see just how red they could get me to turn. They'd probably be called MILFs now, but I don't think there was a collective name for them back then, other than housewives. I stayed on the van, fetching and carrying fruit and veg, because it saved my boss from climbing up and down the tailgate. He served, weighed, took the payments, and never got up on the back of the van other than to load stock at the wholesalers. I was only allowed to ride in the front on the drive to the first stop, and back from the last one.
Last Visit said:
The joy of making a mobile phone call, there being no answer. But then being called back. No longer worrying about spending 42ppm or whatever the circa 1995 rate was, someone elses problem now.
BT Chargecards - a gamechanger, meaning you no longer had to save up your change to call your girlfriend, and the telephone box was less likely to have been rendered unserviceable by an attempt, successful or otherwise, to relieve the cash box of it's contents.Trying to avoid being the one among your siblings who got sent next door to "put 50p in the meter for old Wilf". Wilf would bang his walking stick on the garden fence to summon assistance, and although he was barely mobile, very old, and nice enough as a person, we were all terrified of going around there because he looked exactly like Davros from Dr Who...
A negative memory amongst all these rosy tinted recollections.
Fennings Fever Mixture, a bilious concoction so fouls tasting it put fur on your teeth, and I swear it was used by parents to check if you really were feeling a bit crock on the basis if you were prepared to drink a shot of that then.
Ingredients reputed to contain nitric acid.
Fennings Fever Mixture, a bilious concoction so fouls tasting it put fur on your teeth, and I swear it was used by parents to check if you really were feeling a bit crock on the basis if you were prepared to drink a shot of that then.
Ingredients reputed to contain nitric acid.
FiF said:
A negative memory amongst all these rosy tinted recollections.
Fennings Fever Mixture, a bilious concoction so fouls tasting it put fur on your teeth, and I swear it was used by parents to check if you really were feeling a bit crock on the basis if you were prepared to drink a shot of that then.
Ingredients reputed to contain nitric acid.
My Mums go to...Fennings Fever Mixture, a bilious concoction so fouls tasting it put fur on your teeth, and I swear it was used by parents to check if you really were feeling a bit crock on the basis if you were prepared to drink a shot of that then.
Ingredients reputed to contain nitric acid.
beagrizzly said:
Who had one of those yellow handlebar sirens - with choice of siren sound - for those pretend police missions??
IIRC the deluxe model even had a microphone so it could also be a megaphone (of sorts), Proper T J Hooker / ChiPs fantasy stuff!!
BTW - I never did. Jealous as hell.....
I had one of those as well. I also remember having a Knight Rider watch and I'd pretend to talk to KITT with it! IIRC the deluxe model even had a microphone so it could also be a megaphone (of sorts), Proper T J Hooker / ChiPs fantasy stuff!!
BTW - I never did. Jealous as hell.....
markymarkthree said:
WrekinCrew said:
While we're on toy guns
When out of ammo, rowan berries worked, or you could fire them from a bicycle pump.
Brilliant gun, i used to pour in a load of dried pees when i lost all the gold balls. When out of ammo, rowan berries worked, or you could fire them from a bicycle pump.
Edited by WrekinCrew on Tuesday 20th June 17:55
Edited by Mr Squarekins on Tuesday 20th June 18:38
Edited by Mr Squarekins on Tuesday 20th June 18:38
Master Of Puppets said:
Anyone break their fingers with these.....
Not quite, but had a few sore thumbs/fingers. We called them 'clackers' as per my post a bit further back, not sure if that was the official name or just a nickname. That photo does take me back to the 1970s though, thanks. 
beagrizzly said:
blueg33 said:
Small plastic toys floating around in breakfast cereals like frosties and coco pops.
I was blown away by a small plastic car that had 7 or 8 pieces you had to assemble, and by these
I remember Cornflakes doing a series of tiny model airliners in kit form. They were very cool.I was blown away by a small plastic car that had 7 or 8 pieces you had to assemble, and by these
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
I also had an Acetylene lamp. (At least I think that's what it was). You dropped a solid into water & it made a highly flammable gas. Whoever thought giving that to a six year old boy was a good idea?
Calcium Carbide. Water dribbled onto it creates Acetylene. Early cars, bikes, motorbikes used them and remarkably, considering electric lights had been around for a long time, you could still buy it from bike shops in the early 70s.john2443 said:
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
I also had an Acetylene lamp. (At least I think that's what it was). You dropped a solid into water & it made a highly flammable gas. Whoever thought giving that to a six year old boy was a good idea?
Calcium Carbide. Water dribbled onto it creates Acetylene. Early cars, bikes, motorbikes used them and remarkably, considering electric lights had been around for a long time, you could still buy it from bike shops in the early 70s.
I was fascinated by it!
brownspeed said:
bigpriest said:
Yep - "Bookmark" I think it was called
WOW!!! Moorfield walk, just up from the fibreglass seals* (*WTF??)
bigpriest said:
brownspeed said:
bigpriest said:
Yep - "Bookmark" I think it was called
WOW!!! Moorfield walk, just up from the fibreglass seals* (*WTF??)Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff